Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Homosexual Teacher Jailed: Paying Boys to Sext Him

Mark Kandel of Peckville (Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania) who was a school administrator in Archbald, and previously a Scranton School Board member, was sentenced to over 14 years in prison for offering money to male students (no females) to send naked pictures of themselves to him.

Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo told Kandel his actions were "depraved."

Prosecutors said Kandel sent as many as 13,000 text messages, most of them sexual in nature, to 17 juveniles during a short period in 2012. One of the victims came forward after Kandel sent him a nude photo of himself and was ridiculed at the school by fellow students. The victim told Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo he attempted suicide during the ordeal.

The boy, now a student at a college in Lackawanna County, said he had to withdraw from attending school at Valley View High School due to stress and ridicule from other students. He told Caputo he attempted suicide and self mutilated while reading the text messages from Kandel.

Kandel was indicted by a federal grand jury in December on four counts. He pleaded guilty in June to a single count of online enticement of a minor while the three other counts were withdrawn under a negotiated plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Scranton.

Kandel did not move when his youngest daughter, currently a student at Valley View, said she was ashamed to call him a father. She told Caputo that for the first 15 years of her life she held her father on a “pedestal,” saying they had an “unbreakable bond.”

She said her family forgave their father when he was charged and later sentenced to 90 days home confinement in 2008 for supplying alcohol to minors during a party at their home.

. . . The then 17-year-old man, now attending college in Lackawanna County, told investigators about his contact with Kandel while he was a student at Valley View High School. The boy sent an email to Kandel asking for help with a college entrance exam essay and stayed in touch by texting. Their communication was harmless at first but quickly turned explicit, with Kandel asking the boy to send him pictures of the boy wearing Calvin Klein underwear.

The boy said he had to withdraw from attending Valley View because of stress from other students. He told Caputo he attempted suicide.